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While I hated the nightmares, I held each vision close to my chest. For they were the only power I had in this world. And perhaps the only thing that was mine.

As a child, the visions and the dreams were mere flashes of color and sounds, then became more vivid as I grew. Some nights, I still tried to convince myself that perhaps they were just detailed dreams, fueled by my overactive imagination in the boring monotony of the palace.

“Please.”I murmured a prayer to my ancestors as I rode oversleet-covered trails into the snow-crowned forest. “Let my foolish plan work. Let me end the suffering of this continent, and let me be free for the first time in my life.” Then, to the stars and the gods, I wanted to say,You’d better help me survive the night. If I’m dead, there will be no prophecy, no emperor of all emperors!But all that came was “Please…don’t abandon me tonight.”

The mountains were so much louder in the night than during the day. Wild with nocturnal animals braver under the cover of darkness than in the light. I hadn’t brought a torch, because I didn’t want to be seen. The deeper I ventured, the more I regretted this.

I waited for Fate to guide me, but nothing happened.

No spark, no light. Just the chill of the winter air against my heaviest fur coat, and the sound of fresh snow crunching under my stallion’s hooves.

“If those nightmares are punishment for what Rong is doing under my name, shouldn’t you help me change my fate?” I grumbled into the darkness.

The darkness did not answer.

I searched the forest for a flash of white and black-blue stripes, which was impossible among the snow and brambles. If a Beiying tiger lurked among these trees, it could easily creep close and kill me before I had the slightest inkling.

Eventually, slender pines became ancient moss-covered trees with trunks thicker than my waist. Some of these trees had to be hundreds of years old. Majestic beings who had guarded these mountains long before Rong flew its banners over the land, and would continue to stand guard hundreds of years after Rong had fallen. After every creature who lived in this moment was dead, our bones yellowed andburied, replaced by another generation of empires and dynasties that vied to feed with violence their insatiable hunger for more power, more wealth, more excess of every kind.

In a hundred years, would there be another me, another prophecy? Another girl who hungers for choice, control, freedom? To live a life that was more than bearing heirs and waiting for the warmth of a husband?

By the time the forest thinned and I broke into a hidden valley of quiet streaming water, the moon was high and ten thousand stars dazzled in the silken indigo sky above.

I gazed up at the white cliffs and the precariously steep paths carved out by the local hunters. High clifftops were usually where Beiying tigers nested, peaceful places far from the lesser creatures that also frequented these woods.

However, all mortal creatures need to eat, and these tigers still had to hunt.

I took out the dagger Fangyun had given me. Legend had it that Beiying tigers could smell fresh blood from a mile away.

Wildlife is scarce this year. The tigers will be extra hungry.General Xu’s passing words from when we first arrived at camp.

I unsheathed Fangyun’s blade and pressed its edge against my forearm.

How much blood was enough to lure one to me? And how much blood could I spare? They didn’t teach these sorts of things in my classes, and I couldn’t find answers in the hunters’ handbooks I’d browsed.

I dismounted from the stallion and surveyed the terrain.

For a trap to work, the location had to be perfect. I needed a spaceunobstructed by trees and hills so I could see my prey at the same time it saw me. Somewhere I could use to my advantage—

A twitch of midnight blue. A rustle in the bushes, the barely audible sound of labored breathing.

The vision of a thrown knife, slicing open my throat.

I barely had the time to dodge before a knife whizzed past and snipped off a strand of hair, missing my jugular by mere inches.

An enemy, though not a tiger.

Did the emperor’s men realize I had snuck out?

No,they couldn’t have caught up this quickly. And they certainly wouldn’t dare throw a knife at me.

In one swift movement, I plucked an arrow from my quiver and was about to let it loose when a familiar voice made me pause.

“Stop!” A male voice.

Arrow still nocked and ready, I remained where I was. “Show yourself.”

“I—”